Monday, June 29, 2009

EXCLUSIVE: Colombia interested in MBT Arjun!

LiveFist has confirmed that the Latin American country Colombia has expressed interest in purchasing India's indigenous Main Battle Tank (MBT) Arjun. The National Army of Colombia (Ejército Nacional de Colombia) operates armoured personnel carriers and infantry combat vehicles of Brazilian and American origin, but does not have any main armoured strength. As part of its modernisation drive, the country is interested in inducting regiments of main battle tanks. The country has sent the DRDO a request for information (RFI) on MBT Arjun. This is the first ever expression of interest from abroad in the MBT Arjun.

The Colombian Army apparently wants tank regiments to bolster defences on its border with Venezuela where the Chavez government is going on a relentless arms buying spree. In 2004, in fact, Spain pulled out of a deal to supply 46 AMX-30 battle tanks to Colombia amid fears that it would spark off an arms race with Venezuela -- which is precisely what has happened anyway. Remember, Colombia is a country embroiled in low intensity armed civil war, one that has been on since the 1960s.

29 comments
:

Anonymous
said...

Why on earth would they want to buy Arjun when it itself is nothing but an amalgamation of German engine, French and Israeli electronics, when they can get proven and cheaper 'tank platforms' from Ukraine? The Ukrainian T-series stuff can be modded and upgraded with western electronics to no end, too.

Something tells me they are acting as proxies, and any Arjuns bought would be used for "competetive analysis" of the armour. The details will then end up with Pakistan and/or China.

Why would Colombians want to buy an MBT? And if they really "need" an MBT, why Arjun?

What is wrong with T80, or Leopard 2E? When you get down to it, there won't be any cost savings with Arjun since the others have better support infrastructure, higher volume of parts and are thus cheaper in long run. DRDO can barely support Arjun's in India, the quality of support half way around the world can be well imagined.

So what is the 'logic'?

Methinks the Colombians are "using" Arjun to get good prices from other vendors.

note that this is just a request for information (rfi)..only after this will the rfq/rfp stage come..rfi goes to every tank manufacturer in the world, which include the chinese, japs, koreans, russians, ukranians, americans etc

Hey whats the real prob. with arjun now?? I guess the defects which were there earlier were rectified. Even our army is not able to pinpoint any defects now except that it is heavy(still lighter than Abrams & Leopard with round about the similiar performance).

Me thinks that the Dhruv has made quite an impression in Latin America in that Indian equipments are looked upon as high quality stuff. At the end of the day Indian equipment can easily compete with other high quality manufacturers...

I have been following this blog for the last 1-1.5 years and one thing i have been constantly noticing is that the moment a blog which says anything +ve about Arjun or any DRDO product comes up, we would see dozens of comments berating and insulting DRDO capabilities. For example see the first comment which says that Arjun is nothing but an amalgamation of german engine and french electronics and at the same time forgetting to point that other than those two things all of the remaining is INDIAN(be it suspension, Armour) And that it was DRDO scientists who brought best of what they can get and integrated it into a fine piece of tank money can buy(which i believe is a huge step for us, considering the fact what we had earlier was nothing better than screwdriver technology). then he starts saying that the only reason why Columbia would be buying would be to analyze the ceramic/metal armour and pass on the same to chineese and pakis. What these guys fail to understand is that the export versions of any item are intentionally made less capable than for domestic versions, its same with russias as well as with americans.Why would Colombians want to buy an MBT? And if they really "need" an MBT, why Arjun?

What is wrong with T80, or Leopard 2E? When you get down to it, there won't be any cost savings with Arjun since the others have better support infrastructure, higher volume of parts and are thus cheaper in long run. DRDO can barely support Arjun's in India, the quality of support half way around the world can be well imagined.

So what is the 'logic'?

Methinks the Colombians are "using" Arjun to get good prices from other vendors.

sales guys comming out of closet, trying to push their companies product to INDIA's would be clients. I would just like to know where he got his so called facts about the support structure of Arjun tanks with respect to Indian Army?

Does anyone know that cars manufactured in Chennai and other manufacturing plants in India are zero defect manufactured

Except they aren't. Hyundais have plenty of defects, but they are smart enough to fix them when customer complains, and not drag the matter to courts like morons at Tata. And Hyundai isn't making tanks anyway.

To @2:46AMHyundai certainly has lot of defects, offcourse they are not of benz class. What i mean is they can still get ur job done efficiently. Also apart from Hyundai we also manufacture German cars(BMW and Benz). And please dont say there are defects with these else u must be a Paki. The same standard for manufacturing of these cars can be achieved by India for defence manufacturing(Just the political will).

DRDO should try to convince Army for more orders on ARJUN tanks , army is insisting some minor defects only, drdo should find out solutions in fastrack either help from indian private concerns or trusted abroad concerns, if we work too slow the arjun project could be in trouble , so try to have new team and need to have solution in fastrack .If arjun is success our govt have placed atleast 1000 to 1500 nos , but due to not satisfied govt forcely placed only 125 nos . Arjun has LAHAT anti-tank weapon( israel ) which is highly superior and one of the best in its class .

Sell Sell Sell ! what ever sells should be sold. Remember how western countries fuel there research by selling their products across the world. If they will worry about other will know their product secrets then nothing will sell. Selling a product to one country increases the interest of other countries. Their are lots of products which various western countries are not able to sell to their own military but is sold to other countries across the world. so DRDO should see this as an brilliant oppernunity to sell and use money for further research in the product. The marketing team should immediately come in action.

Hi I was going through one article on Indian Defence Research Wing. I found that Russian T-90s, procured a few years ago, faced problems while operating at high temperatures in the desert, affecting the tanks’ electronics, fire control system and thermal imagers.

its not a joke. those who have seen it on ground would believe it. its way ahead of t 90 in all respects. be it main gun(120 mm rifled against 125 mm smoothbore), cdrs panoramic sight( incorpporates french components along with indian), german engine, has a canon launched guided missile, the fcs is much advanced( the gunners system are powered by an auxillary engine) along with way more crew comfort amongst others. all in all, it follows a western approach to tank design rather than a russian who go for lighter designs. ive had the ooportunity to get into both t 90 and arjun. in the recent trials at a field firing range the arjun outgunned and outmanouvred the t90 in all respects and that too with a crew without much experience in operating arjuns. if weight is an issue then let me tell u its powered by a 1400 hp supercharged engine against a t90's 1000 hp. even officers of the indian army armoured corps now accept the fact, having seen the trials for themselves, after all seeing is believing. the arjun already incorporates features which make it compatible with a highly network centric warfare scenario. over the last 37 years the arjun has evolved from a 35 ton 105mm tank into a 58.5 ton 120mm gun powered tank. with some finishing touches and some will, the indian army can exploit its full potential. the t90 on the other hand though having the latest technology into its components, still remains outdated in its conception and design ideologies. those who ever get the opportunity to get into a t 90 and an arjun and have a slightest of experience in the inner workings of a tank and identifying the technologies that drive tank components will appreciate the fact that arjun stands to be a highly potent war machine.

foreign components? facts- leclerc and merkava run on german engines.many french military electronics and avionics are manufactured in india( by samtel corp). most of the defence majors of the world outsource to cut costs.

Long foreign rule has made our minds forget our capabilities. We should not forget that we have defeated the British long long ago not once but twice ... by our indigenous technologies(rockets). Mysore kingdom was finally won only with the help of traitors & not straight War. Has anyone talking here about the tank used it. We should only conclude after seeing the performance in the actual War-field .. Even the Israeli Markava was destroyed by a small group of Palestine people.Most of the foreign companies don't want DRDO to develop so they can sell poor products(Great specs)... Real R&D requires time.We can decide Good or Bad tank only after putting the tank to test in real war......